Monthly Archives: November 2012

Recently, I had the quintessential Starbucks experience (or it would have been if not for the 6 a.m. hour after dropping my son off for swim practice). Tall, skinny Pumpkin Spice Latte in hand, I was working on notes for my Sunday school class on Jonathan Edwards. I had my Kindle Touch (now upgraded to a Paperwhite, but that’s for another post) for source material and the Microsoft Surface RT to write. These two items fit easily on the little table; the angle of the screen, using the built in stand, was ideal, and off to writing I went. It helped that the music was great (not overwhelming) and few patrons walked through the door at that hour. That was the beginning of my Surface experience. That experience was indicative of my use of the Surface; a truly well thought out tool that fits well in my life. Overall, my time with the Surface has been one of delightful surprise; as Guy Kawasaki would put, one of enchantment.

Let me step back a bit. My company, Builders Mutual Insurance, experiments from time to time with different technologies. One such experiment is the new Microsoft Surface, the RT for now. I’ve previously played with beta versions of Windows 8 on the deeply flawed Dell ST, in another such experiment, so I’m fairly used to the interface. My expectations were fairly low. In fact, I asked one of my colleagues, Todd: “Who would ever by that machine? Even a consumer would want the Pro.” Why? I thought the RT would be under-powered and too limited without supporting general Windows apps. I was definitely wrong on the first count and the second issue may not be that huge for many consumers. The Surface is a really lovely experience for both consuming and composing. The consuming part of web, media and social networks, is great. This is to be expected; however, the screen is truly fabulous, the responsiveness is first rate and the apps are nice. I really didn’t think the RT would perform well; I thought you should wait for a “real” notebook processor, not a tablet processor. What I discovered is that everything is snappy, there are no delays and whether I’m looking at a 720p YouTube video or streaming music through Amazon’s cloud player while I’m checking up on Twitter & Facebook feeds. There is no slow down, stutter or any hint of performance lag.

More surprising is the content creation side. Whether it’s writing this blog, working on a spreadsheet or updating a document, all is done with relative ease. I’m fairly accurate and quick with the keyboard. The screen is more than adequate to see what I’m doing and the applications are all I need for creating documents.

Is it perfect for every task? No. There are many apps I run that won’t run on RT, Surely a good, full- sized keyboard coupled with dual monitors is a better setup for hard core work, The point is, that when you want mobility, there is little you have to sacrifice to have it. Can you tell I really like this machine?

A special note about using Microsoft Office 2013 on the Surface RT: Skydrive integration rocks. All of my notes are on Skydrive. Access and editing is fully baked in. I edit in Word and always save to Skydrive. I’ve used Google docs for years and especially love it when collaborating, but it doesn’t come close to using Word with Skydrive. You get all the familiarity of Office, all the fonts and other features, while working in the cloud. Nice.

One other primary difference from other tablets: I come to the Surface with the mindset that I can get things done. Taking a line from Father Christmas: This is a tool, not toy. My encounters with the iPad seemed more like a most fun, consuming device. Now I know you can buy all sorts of add-ons, both software and hardware, to extend its capabilities and make it a working machine. The Surface, however, seems more designed for work and play, a tool for accomplishment. It does so with elegant and relatively painless compromises to fit within a more mobile lifestyle. Those little café tables don’t look quite so tiny anymore,

UPDATE: Whyspersync for Voice is now enabled on the Windows Phone 8. The Windows client is now second to none and provides a great experience. Great job Audible!

Updated (again): Paperwhite Version 2 is an incremental update whose software features are now available in the Version 1 Paperwhite. Some thoughts on V2 are discussed at the end or the article

Updated (final?): Voyage is the latest iteration of the Kindle. See here for a review.

Note (clearly not final):Paperwhite Version 3 is a substantial update with a resolution upgrade that matches the Voyage. See morehere.

If you’re a dedicated Kindle fan, you probably know that Amazon has enabled a new feature: Whispersync for Voice. Essentially, it allows you to synch your reading of a Kindle book and listening to the audio version of it from Audible. This was a beautifully executed plan by M. Bezzos and Co. that began with Amazon’s acquisition Audible in the summer of 2008. Now when I get in the car for my brief morning commute (thanks Raleigh), I can continue listening to Orson Scott Card’s Pathfinder from the same place I left off on my Kindle. Wicked cool; of course the device on which you listen to Audible books will need to be connected to the internet and the book needs to be Whispersync enabled. Now your voracious appetite for reading can be systematically cranked up, through listening then reading as you’re able.

UPDATE 12.17.13: Based on a comment (thanks Dave for the heads up) some at Audible may be miscommunicating or confused. Whispersync for voice works between Kindle Paperwhite (1 & 2) and an Audible device such my Nokia Lumia 920 (Windows Phone 8). Of course, we’re not saying synching between two audio sources since the Paperwhite doesn’t have audio capabilities (such as the Kindle Touch does). Rather, it’s synching between audio and text. Here’s what it looks like when you are on the Paperwhite and you last listened on Audible: (The example here is Between Two Thorns written by the talented Emma Newman and narrated with her dulcet-toned voice)

Whispersynch Audible to Paperwhite

While this is what you see on your Audible player (at least for Windows Phone 8) when synching from the Kindle Paperwhite:

Whispersynch from Paperwhite to Audible Player (WP8)

There’s also the option to read and listen to a book or bimodal reading. There’s lots of research which suggests that this method of reading allows the reader to comprehend and retain the material better. My own personal experience with this was with Tolkien’s The Hobbit, read by the incomparable Rob Inglis (who also narrates The Lord of the Rings). I’ve read The Hobbit before, but it’s been years. Two things happened for me using the bimodal method: a) it forced me to slow down my reading since I read faster than he narrates and b) I have total focus on the book. My overall experience with The Hobbit was to read without listening, listen without reading and both simultaneously, I really loved picking up my Kindle exactly where I last listened (and visa versa). I also loved doing both; when in that mode, I never had to reread/relisten to some part where my attention waned. This was not crucial with The Hobbit since it wasn’t new to me; it was more helpful with Pathfinder, especially in the dialogs between Ram Odin and the Expendables on dealing with a space/time weirdness. I did this using Kindle Paperwhite and the Audible Android app (on my Samsung Galaxy S Epic). Update: I’ve since upgraded my phone to a Nokia Lumia 920 using the Windows Phone 8 app.

So, in short, my experience with Whispersync for Voice is fabulous; of course, it doesn’t hurt Amazon’s bottom line when you buy both versions of a book. If you want to try it out, Amazon has made a number of classics where the Kindle version is free and the Audible version is available for .99 (and the readers are first rate): Amazon .99 Whispersync Classics. Is the experience always fabulous? Pretty much, but all technology has its limitations, some of them are:

You need to be connected for this to work. If you have Wi-Fi turned off, your Kindle can’t tell the black magic servers where you last finished or pick up where you last listened.

If you fall asleep listening to a book, not that his has ever happened to me, you have to manually get to the right page to bring equilibrium to your reading world since it tries to pick up at the last place you listened, that is, long after you were napping.

Sometimes it can be half a minute or more for the sync to happen; that happy dialog that tells you your Kindle self has read beyond your Audible self.

Now, there’s yet another level of bimodal reading: highlighting words while you read. Amazon calls this immersive reading. This is available on the Kindle Fire models. Clearly e-ink technology is not disposed to enable this process. I have a Paperwhite, not a Fire, so I don’t have any personal experience with this, even if it does sound a bit distracting. As many have said before me, e-ink readers are much better for reading; Fires are multimedia devices, much more flexible at many tasks. The best option would be to have both (and you can have both for less than an iPad), but for serious reading, I absolutely love my Kindle Paperwhite; more about that in a separate post. Happy reading and listening.

Some thoughts on Paperwhite Version 2: First, kudos to Amazon to refresh the Paperwhite line. Whilst the competition pushed them (thanks Kobo Aura HD & Nook Glowlight), Amazon answered. My guess is that the Kobo Aura HD was the best ereading hardware on the planet, but not only does Amazon’s ecosystem give the Voyage and the Paperwhite the edge, they’re better hardware now with Paperwhite’s Version 3). There are some slight hardware bump ups (slightly faster processor, more sensitive screen), but they’re not all that noticeable. The main physical improvement is the cleaner lighting of the screen that makes it appear to have a less bluish tint. However, going back to v1 after using v2 for awhile did make me notice the faster response, especially page turns. The software side, however, is more of an improvement and is now (since March 2014) available on Kindle Paperwhite V1.

Some more thoughts – on Paperwhite Version 3: Wow, Amazon has really upped it’s game with the Kindle Paperwhite 3 with a 300 dpi (super sharp) screen. It’s the second best e-reader in the world (next to the Voyage) and, indisputably, the best value.

Paperwhite Version 2 screen (available to V1 as an update)

The main benefits so far are Goodreads integration (clearly coming after the acquisition) and collection syncing. I have 3 Kindles at home (1 Kindle, 1 Kindle touch, 1 Kindle Paperwhite V1 and 1 Kindle Paperwhite V2 I use at work which currently syncs with my personal account). Everything shows in your collections, but everything not downloaded is a light grey. Tap the grey cover and voilà, it downloads. So, the updates are welcome; it’s particularly convenient to buy a book and put it on the currently reading list on Goodreads as well as to review what friends are reviewing and buy (clearly this is convenient for Amazon to take some more money) So, kudos to Amazon; a nice update, taking care of their current customers and good use of their platform extending it to Goodreads.
Kindle Paperwhite @ Amazon: